From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

I have been researching the duties of a trustee, in order that I might best undertaker the endowment which the Creator has entrusted to me. Other commentators have extolled the virtues of a 'Claim of Right', I however have decided that rather making such grandiose claims for things which are not within the gift of man, have decided to make a 'Claim of Duty'. The whole ethos of government is contrary to the obligations which have traditionally been assumed to lie with each natural person. And it has been suggested that reliance on government which is the mud which clogs the lotus blossom of the soul and prevents it from opening. Government is little more than a bunch of nine year old children seeking to assert their authority on the playground. As time progresses they become ever more inventive in the means they employ to dupe the gullible into descending to their level of behaviour. Power by its very nature exists only as long as one does not try to use it. An...

Recent changes to the VAT rules on place of supply  have opened a very useful little loophole for international trade to British businesses selling internationally. Under the new rules a VAT registered business in the UK which imports goods from another EU country still receives those goods VAT free, but under the new rules if the goods are then exported from the UK, the company pays no VAT under the 'place of supply' rule. I have not looked into the rules for all the EU member nations but it seems that the UK has decided to take Jersey's fulfilment business and make it its own. Want to take advantage of this competitive edge, then perhaps the best place to base your operations is the Isle of Man or Ireland...

I have decided to award myself the above title. The case of whether the Public Markets' rents should be subject to GST has now progressed a stage further and the particulars of the claim have been submitted by 'the Treasurer of the States'. Interestingly it is the submission is based on a decision in the early twentieth century which determined that a workhouse under the trusteeship of the Guardians of the Poor of St Marylebone  was a business (South West Suburban Water Co. v. Guardians of the Poor of St. Marylebone, 1904(2) Kings Bench 174) in relation to the 'domestic supply of water'; the case found that the work house should pay for water as if it were a business. What bearing this has on whether or not GST should be charged on the rents in the public markets, I cannot see, but clearly this is the best they have. A further case has been dredged up from 1887 which states that any activity which is carried on a great expense is a business, but surely the law...

The log-graph of German inflation in the inter-war period Each line on the vertical access is 10x the value of its preceding Over the weekend the government and banking world has stated its intention to continue to de-value The Times reports, 'The incoming Bank of England Governor may attempt to depreciate sterling by as much as 15 per cent against a basket of currencies as he seeks to help British exporters to tap into foreign demand', Mike Amey, the head of sterling portfolios at Pimco, said. The contrarian view has oft been reported in the Telegraph  and the Financial Times . But none of them actually explain to you what exactly devaluation is and what it means to you. In short a 15% devaluation of the pound means that the price of everything will increase by 17.5%, everything not produced in the UK at least. But that may not be the full story, looking at the fx rate between the GBP and the USD for the past ten years shows that the pound has already been devalue...